


True Friendship

by npse



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Halloween, It's just cutesy friendy things, Multi, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-30
Updated: 2012-10-30
Packaged: 2017-11-17 09:13:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/549972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/npse/pseuds/npse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In more and more interviews lately they’re being asked if the five of them are really friends, really as close as they seem and it’s genuinely starting to get on his nerves. Does their relationships with one another really seem fake? Do they act like they don’t want to be hanging out together? Louis doesn’t understand. He doesn’t understand why people can’t see their happiness and accept it rather than making their doubts known. It isn’t fair.</p>
            </blockquote>





	True Friendship

“Do you think we’re boring?” Louis asks as soon as Harry answers the phone. Louis hates that his voice sounds uncertain, but honestly, he’s concerned.

“What do you mean?” It’s only 5-30pm but Harry feels as drained as he was if it were 11. He rubs a fist over his eye lazily, stifling a yawn as he rolls over on his couch, no longer facing the TV.

“You know what I mean, Haz, are we, One Direction, boring?” He clarifies, as if Harry is the thickest person on earth for not understanding sooner.

Harry chuckles quietly, “Is it possible to be boring when you’re the biggest band on the planet?” He muses, scratching absentmindedly at the cushions in front of his face. “What makes you think that?”

He can hear Louis sigh, the line crackling slightly with the gust of breath. Harry frowns. “Lou?”

“It’s nothing… I’m just reading this website-“ It’s not entirely true. It’s not just the website. In more and more interviews lately they’re being asked if the five of them are really friends, really as close as they seem and it’s genuinely starting to get on his nerves. Does their relationships with one another really seem fake? Do they act like they don’t want to be hanging out together? Louis doesn’t understand. He doesn’t understand why people can’t see their happiness and accept it rather than making their doubts known. It isn’t fair.

“I thought we all agreed not to do that anymore.” Harry gently reminds him.

“We did, but I was linked this one on twitter.”

“Even more reason to ignore it, if you ask me.”

“Are you going to listen to me or not?” Louis snaps and Harry rolls his eyes.

“Go on, then.”

“Right.” Harry lets his eyes fall shut again, only half listening as Louis starts his story, which in usual Louis fashion is taking much longer than actually necessary. What he gathers from it is that they, One Direction, have been labelled the most boring and annoying band on the planet. Usually a tag like that wouldn’t affect them, especially not Louis, but Harry could feel it too. A little splinter of pain. A little part of him that flinched away from the label.

“Ouch.” Harry says before he can stop himself.

“So I ask you again, are we boring?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Maybe that’s the problem… We still think that doing what we always do is enough.”

“Shouldn’t it be?”

“Probably. Then again, our happiness should be enough for the fans too but it never is.”

Harry nods despite the phone conversation, knowing exactly what Louis is referring to.

“I mean,” Louis continues, “it’s been ages since we’ve done a twitcam or a video diary or one of those stupid game shows.”

“I thought you liked those game shows?” Harry frowns.

“Not the point. It’s been ages.”

“Shit, maybe we are boring.” Harry speaks, astonished.

“That’s my conclusion too.” Louis agrees, before adding swiftly, “But I have a plan.”

Harry can hear the smirk in his voice and, if he closed his eyes, could imagine that sparkle in his cheeky blue eyes. But before Harry can even ask what it is, he’s being spoken to again and Harry has to remind himself to pay attention for fear of missing some important detail.

“All will be revealed when we’re all at mine, so get some things together-“

“How many things?” Harry interrupts.

“Enough for a few days,” He answers as if anticipating the question before continuing on, “bring some food and get you and your curls over to my house ASAP. And yes, before you ask, I did just say ASAP – because this is a matter of dire importance.”

“Drama Queen,” Harry quips.

“If you’re not here in half an hour, I _will_ drag you out of that house myself. I am well aware that you’re probably on the couch right now, watching some stupid film, Love Actually, for the thousandth time,”

Harry turns his head back to the TV as the credits start to roll, “It just finished, actually,” He says, but Louis continues, unphased.

“Good, because now it’s time to get up and face an exciting adventure with your four best friends on the planet.”

Harry groans, “But I’m comfy.”

“Don’t care!” Louis practically sings into the phone before abruptly hanging up on him. It takes Harry a few seconds to register the disconnection, keeping the phone to his ear as the buzzing replaces Louis’ voice. With a small huff, Harry drops his phone from his ear, feeling it slide down his face and onto the cushions below before pushing off the back of the couch and rolling to the floor with a thud. He lies there for a few seconds before sitting up and rubbing a hand over his spine, which collided with the floor.

Glancing around his flat, Harry takes in the packets of crisps, the controller from his playstation, the various DVD cases littering his coffee table and frowns. Maybe he is boring. He’s spent the past week alone doing nothing. Maybe it was time for a change.

“Alright Lou,” He says to his empty apartment, leaning on his coffee table for help when getting up, “I’m coming.”

**

It takes almost an hour for all four of them to make their way to Louis’ flat, Zayn arriving last, as always. Apparently asking Zayn to pack for a few days with friends meant ‘pack for a month and don’t forget your hair products’. But, Louis didn’t mind, because Zayn’s thoroughness when packing was better for them in the long run.

Now, however, Louis is in his bathroom, wrapping a towel around his wet hair, making sure he’s gathered it all up in the fabric. He can hear the boys out in the lounge room, grateful that Harry had turned up first and let them all in whilst Louis was in the shower.

Louis doesn’t even bother replacing his shirt over his bare chest as he wanders out to the lounge room to greet the others, his main focus is keeping the towel on his head and his jeans on his hips, since he can’t remember where his belt is.

Zayn is the first one to notice him, busting out laughing as soon as he spots the towel on his head.

“Interrupt you washin’ your hair, did we?” Niall questions, his smile as large as ever.

“We could try and braid your hair if you wanted, I actually know how.” Liam suggests teasingly, “But I’m not too sure it’s a four man job.”

Louis rolls his eyes dramatically, folding his arms across his chest. He wishes he’d brought a shirt, now. “Ha, bloody, ha,” He drones sarcastically.

“Do you really need a towel on your hair?” Zayn asks, but it doesn’t seem to be a joke.

“Not really.” Louis replies, but he’s quick to change the subject. “Okay, lads, gather ‘round. Harry-Harry stop touching Zayn, sit down.”

“Yes, mum.”

A fit of giggles escapes from the group of boys on the couch and Louis rolls his eyes again. He’s standing in front of them, in front of the TV which he makes sure is off, so that he has their full, undivided attention.

“Right – does anyone know what day it is?” Louis starts, looking expectantly at his bandmates. Silence follows. His eyes scan from left to right and back again, from Zayn to Liam to Niall to Harry, who’s annoyingly perched on the armrest.

“Well…” Liam starts, “It’s Wednesday, right?” He glances at Niall for confirmation who only shrugs and grabs one of the packets of crisps off the coffee table, which Louis assumes Harry brought.

“And…” Louis presses, waving his hand in a gesture that seems to say ‘and what else?’.

“It’s the 31st, innit?” Zayn pulls his phone out of his pocket, the light brightening his face before he glances at Louis.

“Right you are, Zayn!” Louis exclaims, clapping his hands together once. Zayn looks pleased with himself, but the others just look confused. Louis sighs, “What month is it?” He probes again.

“October!” Niall shouts out, his mouth full of half-chewed crisps.

“Right again! So, it’s Wednesday the 31st of October – what does that all mean to you?”

“I know this one,” Harry says, feigning thought, “It’s the day Louis invited us all round for a slumber party.” Liam laughs and Louis glares at him.

“Oh come on! Are you all blind?” Louis looks at them desperately, but gets nowhere. “It’s Halloween!”

Realisation washes over Zayn’s face and he grins. “I love Halloween.”

“Clearly not enough to remember when it is,” Liam teases and gets a shoulder nudge for his troubles.

“What’s ‘Alloween then?” Niall asks, stuffing more crisps into his mouth. Zayn’s pretty sure that Niall knows what it is, as if Niall doesn’t know about a holiday involving free candy, and is only asking to frustrate Louis, which, judging by Louis’ expression, is working.

“You know, that holiday where you dress up, roam the streets and collect candies from strangers, the really safe for children one.” Harry provides and both he and Niall laugh.

“Are you quite finished?” Louis asks, hiding his own small smirk with a look of annoyance.

“Yes, we’re all finished,” Liam answers for the others. “So this plan of yours, has it got to do with Halloween?”

Louis rolls his eyes again, “Obviously.”

“Out with it, then, c’mon, we haven’t got all night.” Niall shuffles forward on the couch and Harry, who was sitting on the arm rest, falls into the new space. Louis watches the movement and can’t help the tiny laugh that escapes.

“Okay, so like I said, I was reading this article that said we were boring-“

“Not true!” Niall argues.

“Thanks for that, Nialler.” Zayn replies, smallest of smirks on his face. The sarcasm seems to go unnoticed by Niall.

“Anyway!” Louis retakes focus, giving a small shake of the head as he realises how easily distracted the four men in front of him are. Honestly, it was like dealing with children. “Since we’re all so ‘boring’,” Louis makes the quotation marks in the air with his fingers, “I thought it’d be a good idea to go out there and prove that we’re not.”

“On Halloween?” Liam looks doubtful, “Lou, there’s going to be fans everywhere. People would recognise us from miles away – we wouldn’t get two feet without having to sign things and pose for photographs.”

“Ever heard of costumes, Liam?” Recognition washes over Liam’s face and he smiles sheepishly at Louis, who takes this as his cue to continue. “Tonight is the _perfect_ night for us to redeem ourselves, to get our mischievous sneaky ways back – we can wear costumes and get away with whatever we want, without anyone even realising it’s us!”

“Wow.” Harry breathes.

“That’s brilliant, Louis.” Zayn looks genuinely impressed. Louis tries not to take the look to heart.

“So what you’re sayin’ is, that we head out into the night-“ Niall starts.

“In costumes,” Liam adds, apparently already on Louis’ side of the argument.

Niall nods acknowledgement to Liam before looking to Louis again “Surrounded by kids and people who could recognise us, just to prove to people that we aren’t boring?”

Louis nods. “That’s about the gist of it, yes.”

Niall shrugs, “I’m in.”

Louis grins.

“Me too,” Zayn agrees, looking up from his phone briefly to smile at Louis.

Harry shifts from behind Niall to sit on the arm rest again, “Liam?”

Liam nods, “Sounds like fun.”

Louis looks at Harry. “What do you say, Haz, ‘sound like fun’?”

“Sounds like lots of fun,” He starts, smiling at Louis, “If we actually had costumes, that is.”

The faces of the others fall, as if they’d completely overlooked that small but very significant factor.

“Maybe we should just watch scary movies instead,” Liam suggests, hoping to keep the mood light. He gets nods of agreement from Niall and Zayn. “Or do a twitcam to celebrate with the fans?” More nods of encouragement, but Louis can see that no one finds these suggestions as interesting as his previous one.

Louis stands with his hands on his hips, “Do you all really think I’m that stupid?” He holds a hand up at Harry, “Don’t even try and answer that Harold,” Louis warns with a glare and the others chuckle quietly. “Of course we have costumes. I wouldn’t have invited you all over here and rambled on for so long about this bloody plan if I didn’t have costumes for us all.”

“YES!” Niall exclaims.

“How did you know we’d say yes?” Is Liam’s first question.

“Better not be something silly, Louis.” Zayn almost threatens.

Harry, as before, and for once in his life, is the only one thinking logically. “What are they?”

Louis grins mischievously. “Do you really want to know?” He asks quietly, noticing the way all four of them shift forward to hear better and the way Niall’s head bobs up and down in an enthusiastic signal of ‘yes’. “Okay…” He pauses for effect, his dramatic technique shining through. “We’re going as…” Another small shuffle forward from the boys. “One Direction.”

It’s almost comical the expressions that wash over the faces of the other four. Zayn, who’s seated on the far left of the couch, raises an eyebrow and glances at Liam, as if he’s misheard or is missing part of the plan, waiting for it to be revealed. Liam shrugs at Zayn, seemingly just as confused as Zayn looks. Harry, on the far right of the couch frowns. Niall, for some unknown reason, has a smile growing on his face to echo that of the boy at the front of the room.

“Going as ourselves isn’t a costume, Louis.” Harry says, annoyed that he allowed himself get swept up in the suggestion, if only for a moment.

“Yes it is!” It’s Niall that comes to Louis’ rescue now, grinning widely, eyes twinkling with what appears to be comprehension of the master plan.

“How?” Liam asks, brow furrowed slightly.

Niall looks to Louis, as if to ask ‘can I?’ and Louis gives a small nod.

“We go as each other!” Niall bursts out, checking everyone’s reactions, especially Louis’ just in case he was wrong. Louis grins.

“Now _that_ is brilliant,” Zayn comments, shaking his head a little in disbelief.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you doubted my talent, Zayn.” Louis quips and Zayn laughs quietly.

“How does it work?” Liam questions.

“Who’s going as who?” Harry speaks again, seemingly a little more interested in the plan now that it really was costumes and a real chance of happening.

“I already thought of that,” Louis says proudly, looking to Liam first of all. “Liam, you’re Zayn. Zayn, you’re Harry. Harry, you’re me. I’m Niall and Niall, you’re Liam.” With each new name and swapping of character, Louis pointed at the respective person and found his hands crossing over a few times before he’d explained it all. Everyone looked confused.

“It’s good, right?” He asks, a small bundle of nerves growing inside his stomach because Lord help him if they didn’t like this plan. They gave half-hearted nods. “Well, we have to do it anyway, otherwise I’m screwed.” Louis admits and once again, four sets of eyes are trained on him.

“Why?” Harry draws the word out more than usual with his lazy speech.

“Because I’m already committed to being Niall.” More looks of confusion from the boys and Louis just can’t stop himself. He presses his lips together into a thin line, reaching up to pull the towel from his head and reveal the newly platinum blonde-dyed hair.

Zayn’s jaw drops in an almost comical fashion and Niall laughs as though he’s going to wet himself.

“Management is going to kill you.” Liam says, eyes large as they take in the new hair.

“Maybe,” Louis shrugs, “But not if it was for a good reason! Besides, the box said wash-out.”

“Trust me,” Niall says, rising from the couch and going to inspect Louis new hair, “Wash-out doesn’t always actually _mean_ wash-out.” Louis disguises the shudder of fear that runs through him by tilting his head down for Niall to inspect.

“I’m not dying my hair,” Zayn frowns over his phone at Louis, unsure of whether he likes the new change or not.

“You don’t have to, you’re me.” Harry consoles, but he looks just as worried as Liam. “Is that actually dyed, Niall?”

“It is actually, 100% dyed. No wig at all. Look.” Niall tugs on Louis hair, who yelps at the unexpected assault and pushes his blonde friend back a little.

“Shit,” Harry breathes, shaking his head.

There’s a few moments of silence before Liam speaks again. “Is that why we had to bring clothes?”

Louis nods, “Yes, Liam,” He says condescendingly, “Otherwise how would we be able to swap characters, hmm?”

“’S a good thing I actually did then, otherwise you’d be going naked, Lou.” Niall laughs and Louis waggles his eyebrows suggestively.

“I just hope Zayn’s brought all his make-up otherwise Liam’s gonna have a hard time pulling that look off.” Harry’s quip is interrupted by a flying cushion from the other end of the couch. All five of them laugh.

“I take it this means we’re all interested in this plan?” Louis asks, face hopeful.

“We don’t really have a choice in the matter, not now that you’ve gone and done _that_.” Liam jokes, shaking his head slightly as he eyes off the blonde unstyled hair on top of Louis’ head.

Louis grins. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

**

“Does anyone know how to make curls with a hair straightener?” Liam calls out from the bathroom.

“My hair doesn’t have curls in it!” Zayn quickly replies, ruffling through Harry’s bag of clothes to find something to fit, “You don’t need curls!”

“It’s not for him, it’s for you, idiot.” Harry rolls his eyes as he straightens his own hair in the mirror of Louis’ kitchen. “Why is there even a mirror here anyway?”

“El put it there – don’t ask me.”

“Maybe she wants you to realise how ugly you look in the morning,” Niall quips.

“Or all the time,” Zayn continues and the two burst out laughing.

“Shut up.” Louis grumbles, digging through Niall’s bag of clothes for some kind of styling product for his hair. “Do you have that wax stuff, Nialler?”

Niall shakes his head, almost falling over as he tries to squeeze into a pair of Liam’s jeans. Whilst all the boys are almost the same shape, Liam’s a little skinnier than Niall and the clothes are a tighter fit. “I always just use Liam’s.” He replies.

Liam appears in the doorway to the bathroom. “Oi!” Niall cracks up laughing again. “If you rip those jeans, mate.” He play-threatens, but it’s interrupted by Zayn’s outburst of laughter.

“Oh my God, what the hell is that? Is that how you think my hair looks?” He asks incredulously, looking to Harry for support who laughs. The two of them move toward Liam, examining the attempted quiff. Liam laughs too, although a small blush dots over his cheeks.

“It’s harder than you make it look, y’know.”

“Duh,” Zayn draws it out emphatically, before draping an arm around Liam’s shoulders, leading him back into the bathroom. “I’ll teach you the ways of the quiff,” he says lamely and all of them laugh.

“Don’t forget eyeliner!” Louis shouts after them, (evoking an adamant ‘I DON’T WEAR EYELINER’ from Zayn) laughing.

“Need some help there, Harry?” Niall asks, drawing Louis’ attention from the bag of clothes to his bandmate, who was struggling only slightly with straightening his hair.

“How do you even do the back?” Harry ponders, looking confused, defeated and completely different with the new straight fringe.

“The joys of having naturally straight hair,” Louis sighs happily, swiftly dodging the badly aimed water bottle that flies past his head from the direction of the kitchen. He crosses the messy room to rifle through Liam’s bag for some hair products as Niall tends to Harry, before remembering something important. “Shit, we forgot about Niall!”

Harry and Niall exchange glances. “No…”

“Still here, Lou.” Niall says, waving his hand in demonstration.

“No, I mean we forgot about _you_.”

Another moment of silence.

“I’m not sure I follow.”

“I’ve got no idea.”  Harry and Niall say to each other.

“Your hair, Niall, I forgot about you having to go dark to be Liam!” Louis frowns slightly, “Sorry mate.”

Niall shrugs it off with a smile, “No problem. We’ll just dye it.”

Harry’s jaw drops and all Louis can do is smile back. “Looks like a trip to the store, then. Liam! Come on, we have to go buy some hair dye!”

“WHAT?!” Liam is in the doorway, towel around his shoulders with Zayn’s fingers tangled in his hair. “I’m not dying my hair!” He squeals.

“Not you, Niall. I just need you for reference.” Louis says pragmatically and Liam gapes. “Come on then!”

“Management is going to kill us.” Liam warns, but removes the towel from his shoulders and pulls on a shirt instead, pushing Zayn’s hands from his hair.

“At least out final moments will be fun,” Zayn provides, wiping his product-ridden hands on the towel.

“You’re letting him go out like that? With half-styled Zayn hair?” Harry asks Louis.

“Why not?” Zayn asks a little defensively.

“It’ll blow our cover for later if they see his new style.”

“True.”

Everyone turns to Louis for guidance.

“A hat. Someone get this boy a hat… STAT!”

Niall’s laughter rumbles through the room as the rest of them search for a cover for Liam’s new hair. Finally someone, possibly Zayn judging by the glare Harry shoots his way, finds one of Harry’s beanies hidden in the recesses of his bag and places it delicately over Liam’s hair. “That’ll do.”

“If you get product on it, you’re dead.” Harry warns.

“I’m sure worse things have been on it, knowing your track record.” Louis teases and only just manages to avoid another projectile headed his way, this time a jar of before-straightening product.

“Forgetting something?” Niall asks.

Louis raises an eyebrow, “No?”

“Your hair,” Harry provides, “You need a hat too.”

“Chuck him one of your snap-backs, Niall,” Zayn instructs and Niall does as he’s told. Louis pulls it down over his head and tries not to feel too self-conscious.

“That looks ridiculous. You both do.” Harry provides with a laugh, but before Liam can object Louis has his arm around his shoulders and is leading him toward the front door.

“Come along Liam, we’ve got to get the perfect dye for Niall otherwise this plan is over already!”

“We’ll just stay here then?” Zayn asks, unsure of what to do with himself.

“Zayn, you’re hardly even ready – you’ve done nothing!”

“I don’t really know what to do,” He admits quietly.

“Don’t worry Louis, I’ll finish Harry’s hair and then do Zayn’s,” Niall says, standing behind Harry again with the straightener in hand.

“Who knew we had such a budding stylist in our midst?” Louis exclaims dramatically and this time, the apple that’s sent his way hits him in the shoulder. “Ouch!”

“Go on, get out of here,” Niall waves Louis and Liam in the direction of the door, “And bring some Nandos on your way back!”

**

“Do you really think this is a good idea?” Liam asks, as he and Louis power walk through the pharmacy towards the hair product aisle. They’ve yet to be noticed by anyone, but it was only a matter of time considering how much attention they were drawing by practically running through the middle of the store.

“What?” Louis says distractedly, his eyes trailing the shelves in case they’ve accidentally missed their destination. He knows what Liam’s referring to, but a little playing dumb never hurt anybody. And besides, he knew Liam was having fun, no matter how many rational reasons why they _shouldn’t_ be doing this he had in his brain.

“You know what, Louis. We’re going out without security, without telling anyone, without a _plan_. We’re dying our hair? I’m not sure, but I think that’s breaking contract.”

Louis rolls his eyes. “And people say I’m the melodramatic one.” He pauses in front of a row of hair colours, all featuring pretty women on the front with various shades of blonde and brown hair. He scans the shelves, glancing at Liam’s hair every now and then to refresh the shade in his mind so he can pick the right one.

“Come on, this is serious. Do you really know what we’re in for here?”

He sighs. “Yeah, Liam, I do. We’re in for a night of _fun_. Can you remember the last time we had fun that wasn’t on stage? I just want to be able to head out for the night with my four best mates, do stupid things, have a bit of a laugh and hopefully not get recognised until we’ve at least egged a few houses. Is that too much to ask?”

“It is when you’re in One Direction.” Liam says bluntly, but his eyes convey the smile that his lips are hiding.

“Well bugger it, because we’re doing it anyway.”

Liam laughs and turns to the shelves too, his eyes landing on a green box with a brunette woman on the front. “What about this one?” Louis looks over and picks the box up, placing it beside the small sliver of Liam’s hair that isn’t hidden by Harry’s beanie, examining closely.

“No...not quite. Where’d you get it from? We need a shade darker.” Louis says, searching the shelves for a happy medium once Liam has pointed him in the right direction.

“You know what would be funny?”

“What?”

“If we put blue hair dye in there instead.”

There’s a beat of silence between them as Louis glances at Liam, seeing the smile break across his face and he smirks in response. “You, Mr Payne, are evil.”

“So that’s a ‘no’ then?”

“ _Definitely_ a ‘no’. You’re worried about management killing us now, we’d be fucking crucified if we dyed Niall’s hair blue.”

“At least we’d all be crucified together.”

Louis drapes an arm around Liam’s shoulders and coos animatedly, “Aww, who knew you were such a softie?”

Liam pushes Louis arm off his shoulders, laughing out a meaningless ‘shut up’ and scratches at the hat on his head. “I don’t know how Harry wears this, it itches like crazy.”

“He’s got more hair than you, remember?”

Liam nods. “Are we done here? I think the wax Zayn put in my hair is starting to set and it’s not even properly styled yet.”

Louis gives Liam a look, “I’m not even going to tell you how obnoxious you sounded just then. But yeah, I think I’ve got the right one.” He holds the box beside Liam’s hair, tilts his head either side before nodding. “Yup, definitely the one.”

“Better hope so,” Liam mutters as they stroll toward the check out, “Otherwise not only your hair will be ruined but Niall’s too.”

“My hair isn’t ruined!” Louis exclaims.

“Keep telling yourself that, Tommo.” Liam laughs, clapping Louis on the shoulder gently as they joined the line at the check-out.

**

“Would you sit still, Harry?”

“You’re burning my neck!”

“Zayn, help me out here, please!” Niall pleads, juggling the straightener, a jar of hair product and wrestling an unruly Harry.

“What am I supposed to do?” Zayn asks, checking out the contents of Louis’ fridge as another groan of hunger rolls from his stomach. He lets the door fall shut, stepping over to where Niall has Harry seated in front of the kitchen mirror, having not moved since he and Liam vacated the bathroom.

“Do you know how to straighten?” Niall asks, blue eyes looking desperate as they meet Zayn’s.

“Who cares if he knows how, as long as I stop getting third degree burns on my neck!” Harry complains, shifting in the seat again.

Zayn nods, taking the straightener from Niall and gently pushing him out of the way. “I’ll give it a shot.”

“Don’t forget we still have to curl your hair, Zaynie-Poo, so you look like me.” The low gravelly voice is sing-songy as Harry tilts his head back to grin at Zayn.

“Shoulda told the lads to buy a curling iron too – curling with a straightener is hard.”

Harry and Zayn turn to Niall, who is leaning back in one of Louis’ kitchen chairs, popping grapes in the air and catching them in his mouth.

“What did you say?” Harry asks incredulously, ready to strike as soon as Niall realises what he’s said.

“I mean-“

“Oh my God, you did say that!” Harry’s practically bouncing with excitement and it takes all Zayn has to keep the straightener away from his skin again.

“All I meant was-“

“You’ve tried to curl your hair with a straightener before? To be like me?”

“I read it-“

“In a girls magazine?”

“It’s not like that-“

“What’s it like then?”

“I didn’t say-“

“No way, you can’t take that back!” Zayn shouts gleefully but his laughter is cut short as he remembers the straightener in his hand and the fact that it’s been clamped on Harry’s hair for longer than it should be. “Oh shit.”

“What are you doing?” Harry’s voice is tinted with hysteria.

“Nothing, nothing, it’s fine. Make fun of Niall.”

“He’s burning your hair, mate.” Niall says from over Zayn’s shoulder, popping another grape in his mouth.

“WHAT?!”

“I promise I’m not!” Zayn shoots Niall a glare.

Harry folds his arms across his chest. “You’re both so fucked when this is over.” Niall and Zayn laugh because really, what’s the worst Harry could do? And honestly, when Zayn looks at it, he hasn’t done too much damage.

“It’s fine, Haz, don’t sweat it.” Zayn soothes, patting Harry’s shoulder gently.

“Just make sure I’ve got _some_ hair left by the end of this.”

“There will be,” Niall assures him, “At least in the front anyways.” Niall’s laughter fills the apartment as Harry threatens to end both their lives if his hair is as bad as he thinks it’s going to be.

“Have you got the Louis accent down yet?” Zayn asks Harry after a few moments, playing the ‘hairdresser’ role for all it’s worth.

“I didn’t know we had to do accents.”

“I’m going to,” Zayn says in an almost perfect impersonation of Harry’s low drone.

“Hey, that’s pretty good!” Niall shouts across the room, “Okay what about this – is this Liam enough?” He asks, his accent turning English.

“Not quite Liam-y enough yet.” Harry instructs, and begins to coach Niall on how to sound like Liam. The situation is all rather funny, if Zayn allows himself to take a step back and really examine it. He and his four best friends are playing dress up and doing each other’s hair to go out for the night and pretend to be people other than themselves. On top of that, Louis is giving Liam hair advice, which Zayn considers his area of expertise, and Harry is giving Niall accent advice, which is clearly Louis’s domain. Everything is upside down, topsy turvy, but everything is just right, all at the same time.

“What’s that smell?” Harry asks, pulling Zayn from his thoughts.

There’s a small amount of smoke as Zayn remembers the straightener in his hand and slides it down Harry’s hair once more. He meets Niall’s gaze over the top of Harry’s head and pulls a face. “Nothing, just the straightener heating the product, no big deal.” Niall has to pretend he’s looking for his outfit again to avoid Harry seeing his smile.

“We’re almost done, by the way. All you have to do is put this stuff through your hair, so it doesn’t get too damaged from the straightener.”

“Sure,” Harry nods, earning a slap on the shoulder for moving whilst Zayn was working. “Ouch, sorry.”

“Which Louis hair are you going for, Harry?” Niall asks in a surprisingly accurate Liam accent. Harry must be a better teacher than Zayn had initially expected. Or maybe Niall was just better at accents than everyone else.

“I hadn’t thought about it – what do you think Zayn?”

Zayn slides the straightener over the last of Harry’s curls, watching as they enter curly and exit straight. “Definitely the new hair – the one he has now, that isn’t blonde I mean.”

“With all the flicky parts?”

“Yep,” Zayn takes a step back, ruffling Harry’s hair a little. “How’s it look, Nialler?”

Niall gives the thumbs up. “All straight from here.”

“Cool, guess that means you’re done.”

“You’re not going to help me style it?” Harry looks up at him.

“No – I don’t know how he does it. Louis should be back soon – he can do it. Besides, I’ve got to curl my hair like some curly haired twat, don’t I?” Zayn teases, ruffling Harry’s hair again, which is surprisingly soft after having been attacked with a hair straightener. “It’s so weird seeing you without curls, man.”

“It feels weird.” Harry admits.

“If Lou and Liam don’t bring me back something, _anything_ to eat, I’ll be fuming.” Niall whines from the couch.

“Quit complaining and help Zayn do his hair.” Harry instructs, crossing the room and pushing Niall’s feet off the couch, sitting down in the free space.

“Why me?”

“Because you’re the one who knows how hard it is to curl with a straightener.”

Zayn bursts out laughing and motions Niall over to him.

“You’re both dicks,” Niall groans as he gets up, taking the straightener from Zayn as he reaches him. “Sit down, before I change my mind.” Zayn does as he’s told, smiling up at Niall in the mirror.

“If you speak a word of this to anyone, I’ll wake you up at 3am for the rest of the year.” Niall threatens.

“Wouldn’t dream of it, Nialler. Although, I’m sure the fans would love to know how much of a hair fanatic you are.” Niall smacks Zayn upside the head. “Ouch.”

“Do you want my help or not?”

Zayn sighs, “Yes.”

“Shut up then.”

Zayn mimes locking his lips together and throwing away the key. Harry rolls his eyes. Niall looks down at Zayn’s hair.

“I gotta admit, I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“Maybe we should wait for Liam,” Harry suggests, hanging over the back of the couch, “He’s the straightener expert.”

Niall agrees. Zayn just shrugs.

“What are we gonna do until they get back?”

The three boys look to one another. It only takes a moment for them all to race to the TV cabinet and grab a controller, with shouts of ‘Put FIFA in’, ‘where’s the remote?’, ‘I’m player one’ and ‘piss off – I’m Man U!’ filling the apartment. If none of them could do Zayn’s hair, then there was nothing else for them to do until Louis and Liam returned, which they all secretly hoped wouldn’t be until they finished at least one game.

To their dismay, only four minutes into their 10 minute first quarter, Liam and Louis re-entered the flat, laughing between themselves until they spotted the three boys in front of the TV.

“What are you doing? You’re meant to be getting ready.” Louis says as calmly as he can. Did they not want to do this anymore?

“There wasn’t much else to do without you two.” Zayn shrugs, looking at Louis before his gaze drops to the plastic bags in his hands. “There better be food in those.”

Behind Louis, Liam grins. “Did someone ask for Nandos?”

Niall and Zayn make desperate groans of approval, clambering over Harry on the couch to tear the plastic bags away from their bandmates and carry them into the kitchen, itching to rip into whatever delicacies were inside. Liam joins them and Louis moves toward Harry, who’s still on the couch powering down the playstation.

“Jeeze, that looks alright doesn’t it?” Louis breathes, running a hand through Harry’s straight fringe.

“I can’t decide if that’s a compliment or not, considering it’s _your_ hair that I based it off.” Harry mumbles.

Louis frowns slightly. “Alright, mate?”

And he is. Harry genuinely is okay. Tonight should be fun. But, he still a little worried about their chances of getting recognised. “Yeah, I’m good.” He lies. “Just hungry.”

“Better get over there before Nialler inhales it all then,” Louis suggest with a smile, leading the way to the kitchen. Zayn, Liam and Niall haven’t even bothered to get individual plates, instead opting to crowd the table and eat their individual burgers, reluctantly sparing a bite to someone else, and sharing all the side dishes. Harry and Louis slot easily into the setting and before any of them can realise it, they’ve all but demolished everything.

“I’ve never felt so full in my life,” Zayn groans, pushing the remnants of rice and chips away so he can rest his forearms on the table and bury his head in them. Liam laughs at him and pats him on the shoulder.

“I could go another burger, actually.” Niall admits, subconsciously picking at his braces in that way that really irks Harry, but no one says anything.

“Yes, well, good thing you’re not feeling too bad Niall, because it’s salon time for you.” Louis announces, grabbing the other bag from the kitchen counter and pulling the brown hair dye from inside. “Ready?”

Niall’s eyes grow weary. “Are you dying it for me then?” Louis nods. “Can’t someone else do it?”

“Why?”

“Because Niall’s a hairdresser now,” Zayn quips, voice muffled by the table and Harry’s outburst of laughter.

“That’s right! Better let him do it himself,” Harry says to Louis.

“Fuck off, Harry.” Niall laughs.

“Am I missing something here?” Liam asks.

“I feel like we are,” Louis confirms.

“Niall’s a hairdresser.” Harry informs them.

“That doesn’t know how to curl with a hair straightener.” Zayn has to shout a little since his head is still against the table.

“What?” Liam looks to Louis, who just shrugs.

“I don’t get it.”

“There’s nothing to get,” Niall says, standing abruptly and snatching the box of dye from Louis’ hand. “Now are we doing this or what?”

Louis nods, motioning with his hand for Niall to lead the way and follows behind his soon-to-be brunette friend. Within seconds of them leaving the room, Harry’s relayed the story for Liam’s benefit and they’re all belly laughing, which in Zayn’s case isn’t the best idea considering how sick he feels.

“Stop it guys, I literally feel like I may be sick.”

“Suck it up, Malik.” Liam instructs, lifting his head. “We’ve gotta curl your hair yet.”

Zayn groans, but leans back in his seat, resting his hands on his stomach. “I’m not moving.”

“Alright,” He laughs, wiping his hands on his pants as he gathers the hair straightener from the bench where Zayn had left it earlier.

“Do you know how to do it?” Harry asks, sipping from a bottle of Pepsi.

Liam shakes his head, passing the straightener from hand to hand as he tries to decide where to begin. “How hard could it be?”

“Maybe you should go into business with Niall.” Harry suggests and Zayn doubles over, half-laughing and half-groaning.

“Stoooop.”

“Lean back, Zayn.”

Zayn does as he’s told and is only slightly afraid when he feels the heat of the straightener fly past his neck and Harry’s eyes go wide in front of him.

“What’s going on?” Zayn asks, worried.

“Could you google how to do this, please Harry?” Liam asks, ignoring Zayn, speech rushed as if he’s covering up whatever mistake he just made with words.

“Sure.” The curly haired boy in front of Zayn whips out his phone and types some words in, taking another sip of Pepsi and passing it to Zayn as he waits for the page to load. Behind Zayn, Liam’s combing his fingers through Zayn’s hair, flattening it at all points to see just how long it is and how many curls he’ll actually be able to get out of it.

“Right, okay.” Harry starts and Zayn kind of wishes there was something a little stronger in the bottle than just Pepsi. He’s never let anyone but himself and his barber near his hair since his mum stopped cutting it – did he really trust Liam not to ruin it? Yeah, it was only hair and he could probably shave it off and still look alright, but his hair was as much his trademark as Harry’s curls were his. “It says that you have to have clean hair-“

“I washed it this morning.”

“I can tell,” Liam murmurs from behind him, “It smells like coconut.”

Zayn shakes his head, laughing.

“No, it means clean of products. Like mousse and stuff.”

“Oh, well, yeah, then it is.”

Harry plays up a shocked expression. “You came out without product in your hair?” Zayn can hear Liam gasp behind him.

“Shut up and get on with it, tosser.” Zayn says with a roll of his eyes, although there’s still a smile present on his face.

“Okay, well, this site says we need hairspray and holding cream but I don’t use any of that stuff so…”

“I think we should just go natural.” Liam suggests and Zayn nods. Harry shrugs and scrolls down the page on his phone. “Does it say how to actually curl with the straightener?”

“I’m getting to that.”

“Sorry.” Liam’s fingers are carding through Zayn’s fringe again. Zayn finds it strangely soothing considering what’s about to happen. He closes his eyes, relaxing into the chair and breathing deeply and-

“FOR CHRIST’S SAKE LOUIS!”

“Sorry!”

The three boys in the kitchen glance at one another, before Liam speaks up. “Everything all right?”

“Yes, fine!” Louis shouts back, “Just forgot which tap was for the hot water.”

Zayn winces but Harry laughs. “How’d you manage that? It’s _your_   flat!”

“EXACTLY!” Cries Niall, but he’s hushed by Louis.

“If you burn me ‘ead, Li, I’ll smash you.”

“I’ll try my best not to.” Liam soothes and Harry makes a satisfied ‘ah-ha’ noise.

“I’ve got it. Want me to read the instructions out to you?”

“That would be helpful.”

“Well I thought maybe you’d want me to show you.”

“If you want to.”

“No.” Zayn protests and Liam laughs.

“Guess not.”

Harry frowns and shakes his hair out of his eyes, slightly sad when he doesn’t feel his curls bob with the effort but instead a soft curtain of straight hair. He instructs Liam on how to hold the straightener, how long to hold it for and how he should flick his wrist as he’s sliding the straightener along Zayn’s hair. It’s difficult, considering how short Zayn’s hair is in the back, but as Liam works his way to the front, he’s starting to get some really good curls going and Harry is genuinely impressed.

“You’ll have to wear one of my hats, but it looks good, man.” Harry reassures Zayn, who nods minutely.

“You think so?” Liam asks, out of surprise more than self-consciousness and Harry nods. “Your hair looks really good, by the way, Haz.”

“Zayn did most of it. And Niall. I barely did the front.”

“That’s why it looks the worst.” Zayn adds and Harry shakes his hair again.

“It’s weird not having curls.” Harry admits.

“It looks strange.” Zayn echoes.

“Didn’t we already have this conversation?”

“We did.”

“Not with me in the room.” Liam reminds, and they give quiet chuckles. A few moments pass and Harry’s playing with his phone again.

“Should I do a tweet then?” Harry asks, raising his eyebrows.

“Saying what? Lou would kill you if you gave too much away.” Warns Liam.

“Not to mention the fans, if they put it all together.” Zayn agrees.

“I don’t know – something about-“

“NO TWEETS!” Louis shouts from the bathroom, as if reading their minds.

“Yes, mum!” Harry shouts back and puts his phone on the table. “If I can think of something good, I’ll tweet it.” He resolves. Harry shakes his hair again, but without curls, the action isn’t working as well as he’s used to. “How does Louis even manage this.”

“It’s not so much a shake as it is a swoop.” Liam instructs, rolling his head to the side the way that Louis sometimes did when his hair was particularly long. Harry copies the movement and sure enough, the hair slides to the side in a decent fringe and keeps it out of  Harry’s eyes.

“Fuck, you really should go into business with Niall.” Zayn breathes in mock awe and Harry grins as Liam deliberately burns Zayn’s neck with the straightener.

**

“Who taught you how to dye hair?” Niall groans as Louis has to work his fingers out of his hair after somehow getting it tangled in the strands again.

“Sorry we can’t all be hairdressers like you, Niall.” Louis snaps, yanking his hand out of his friend’s hair and considering Niall’s accompanying wince as a small personal win. “I’m doing you a favour here, so be grateful.”

“Wasn’t this all your idea?”

“Shut up, Niall.”

They both laugh and Louis leans close to Niall’s head, inspecting the hair and making sure there aren’t any strands not covered in dye. The dye is strangely thick on Niall’s hair, and Louis is secretly terrified that he’s done something wrong and that he’s ruined Niall’s hair forever.

“How’s it look?” Niall asks coolly, but judging by the worried expression on his face as Louis meets his gaze in the mirror, it’s all for show.

“I can’t really tell with the dye everywhere, but it looks promising. I mean, I followed the instructions just like I did with my own, and look how good that turned out! You’ll be fine.” Louis tries for a reassuring grin, but something in the way Niall looks at him makes him laugh instead. “Well, not much we can do now if it isn’t right anyway!” Louis throws his hands up a little, and Niall laughs.

“Management is going to kill us.”

“You and Liam could make that your catchphrase.”

“Well they are.”

“You could have your own shirts and everything. The fans would love it.” Louis continues, pretending he hasn’t heard Niall. There’s a few moments of silence as the two of them scroll through their phones aimlessly, until Niall speaks again.

“How the hell did you come up with this idea?”

Louis shrugs. “I dunno, really. It just came to me when I was thinking of ways to be less boring.”

“As you do.”

“Right, as you do.”

“How do you think the others are going?” Niall asks, bringing his thumb to his lips and chewing on his nail.

“Not sure. I think Harry’s waiting for me to teach him how to pull off the Tomlinson hair and Zayn’s styling Liam’s hair. Or maybe the other way around – I can’t remember.”

“I thought they were curling Zayn’s hair so he could be Harry.”

“Maybe. I hope that works out, I wasn’t sure about that one.”

Niall laughs, “You probably picked the worst person to be Harry. Zayn hasn’t got enough hair for all those curls.”

“Well then his only other option was Liam, and that wasn’t nearly fun enough for my liking.”

The Irishman shakes his head, laughing, and checks his phone. “How long is this stuff supposed to be in for? It’s starting to really sting my nostrils and eyes, lad.”

Louis frowns a little, feeling the same burn in his eyes and nose, and reaches across Niall to gather the dye box. “It says to leave the dye in for twenty minutes.”

“How long’s it been?”

Silence.

“I don’t know.”

“Are you kidding right now, Lou?”

“No.”

“You know what can happen if you leave dye in too long or not long enough, right?”

Louis considers making another hairdressing joke at Niall’s expense, but figures it’s probably not the time. “Not really.”

Niall groans, “Why did I let you do this?”

“Because you can’t resist my charm, obviously.”

“Sure, that’s it.”

Louis laughs, but checks his watch anyway. “It’s definitely been at least 10 minutes, right?” Niall nods. “You wanna just wash it out and see what happens?”

“No thanks, Lou, I’d rather sit out the 20 minutes.”

“Yeah, probably a good plan.” Louis admits, sitting on the floor and leaning back against his shower door.

“DIdn’t you and El have plans for Halloween?” Niall asks and Louis can’t help but sigh, because yes they did and Niall was the only one who remembered, even though they all knew. “What happened to them?”

“I told her I had band stuff to take care of.”

“Louis-“

“She understands.”

Niall is quiet for a few moments before shrugging. “She’s a great girl. I know you don’t need me to tell you that, but I think sometimes you need a bit of a reminder what you’ve got there.”

“How do you mean?”

“El’s stuck with you through a lot – the crazy fans, the tour, the schedule, the rumours. She’s strong and beautiful and tolerant because God knows how she puts up with you.” Louis laughs. “And I just think that sometimes you take her for granted.” Louis’ laugh falls short and he looks up at Niall with eyes that make him look so young. “She didn’t have to stick around through all that Larry shit and she definitely doesn’t have to put up with the fans or the rest of us the way that she does.”

“I know.”

“But what do I know – I’m just the Irish guy, right?”

Louis gives Niall his sassiest look. “You’re much more than ‘just the Irish guy’, Niall. You’re a lot smarter than you might think, too.”

“I don’t think I’m very smart,”

“Well you are.”

“Cheers, Lou.”

“Wow, that all got very deep for a moment there, didn’t it?”

Niall laughs. “Just a bit.”

“Good thing it was just us – wouldn’t want the others to think we’re emotional wrecks.”

“Oi, speak for yourself, mate!”

Their laughter fills and echoes in the bathroom and before they know it, Louis has deemed the 20 minutes to be up and the moment of truth arrives.

Louis has Niall bent over the bathroom counter, head in the sink and bumping into the faucet everytime he tries to move.

“Remind me why I’m not washin’ this out in the shower?”

“Because you won’t get all the dye out.”

“Right.”

“Right. Ready?”

“Moment of truth.”

“Don’t kill me if it’s not right.”

“I won’t kill you.” Niall promises and Louis breathes a sigh of relief. “I’ll probably kick you in the nuts, though.”

“Right.”

Distractedly, Louis turns on the tap closest to him and starts washing the dye away. He leaves the water on as he grabs some of the shampoo that came with the dye and squirts it into his hand, about to scrub at Niall’s scalp when-

“FOR CHRIST’S SAKE LOUIS!”

Louis isn’t sure what’s wrong for a moment, until his eyes land on the tap that he’s turned on – for the hot water. He shouts out an apology, turning the hot water off and blasting the cool.

“Sorry.” He murmurs quietly after their shouted conversation with the others, hoping that this will soothe Niall enough that he doesn’t cop an assault later on. Something in the way Niall’s shoulders drop as soon as Louis starts to massage the shampoo against his scalp suggests he’ll be fine. Louis smiles a little bit.

As the water and shampoo remove the dye, the colour underneath is slowly revealed and Louis has to admit, he was holding his breath for a while there. But as he rinses the last of the soap from Niall’s hair and dumps a towel over Niall’s head, telling him to check it out, he feels a small sense of accomplishment.

Niall on the other hand, isn’t quite so jovial about the whole situation. As the towel lands on his damp hair, he feels a buzz of electricity shoot through his stomach. It’s too late to go back now. Whatever Louis has done to his hair is permanent, and unless Louis has scissors in his house, it’s what he’ll be leaving the house with. He prolongs the inevitable by rubbing the towel against his hair, taking the remaining water away until he’s basically just rubbing his head for no reason.

“Pretty sure it’s dry, Nialler.”

“I can’t look.”

“Well, show me first then. That way I’ll be able to prepare you for the worst.”

Niall swings blindly with his fist but feels it hit Louis somewhere.

“That was my bloody hip, wanker! Now, come here.”

He lets Louis turn him and pull the towel off of his head.

“Oh wow.” Is all Louis says and Niall can’t stop staring into Louis’ eyes and trying to gauge what sort of ‘wow’ that is.

“Is it okay?”

“I- Let’s show the others.”

“Not until I’ve-“ Niall starts, but Louis has already grabbed his wrist and tugged him out the bathroom door.

“Oi, come check this out!”

As if they were waiting for the moment, Harry, Liam and finally Zayn pop their heads out the kitchen doorway and look in the direction of Louis.

“Shit.” Is all Zayn says and Niall definitely doesn’t find that comforting. Liam’s mouth hangs open. Harry is blinking more than necessary.

“Fuck, Louis, is it really that bad?”

“Take a look!” Harry says, reaching forward to snatch the Niall’s other wrist and drag him into the kitchen to utilise the mirror there. Niall can see his face in the mirror, he knows it’s him, but damn it doesn’t look like it. The boy in the mirror- no, the _man_ in the mirror looks older, sophisticated and so much stronger than Niall ever looked with his blonde hair. He has no words.

“Do you like it?” Louis asks apprehensively, hiding behind Liam.

Niall opens his mouth, but he can’t speak. Harry slings an arm around his shoulders and grins at him in the mirror.

“It looks fucking tops, mate.”

The reassurance lets Niall breathe again and he smiles back at Harry. “It’s alright, aye?”

“Alright?” Liam exclaims, hopping in on the mirror action. “You look so good! My hair colour suits you!”

“I forgot it was your colour,” Niall admits, but now that he compares the shades in the reflection, it’s pretty close.

“It can be your colour now,” Liam says. “It’s so weird how different you look with brown hair.”

“I know.”

There’s a few moments of silence as Harry, Liam and Niall all admire the newly brown hair atop Niall’s head.

“How have we all ignored Zayn for so long?” Louis asks, and they all turn toward the other boy who’s fiddling self-consciously with one of the slightly curled tendrils of his fringe.

“What?” He asks, genuinely curious as four sets of eyes land on him.

“Your curls, mate.” Niall says.

“Oh right. Them. They’re alright, yeah?”

“It looks a bit odd from the back.” Louis says from behind Zayn after having just walked around him several times, inspecting his hair. He shoots Liam a look, playing critique.

“Well I couldn’t curl the two centimeters of hair he’s got back there now could I?” Liam says flatly.

“Touchy,” Louis murmurs and Zayn laughs.

“Seriously though – it’s alright?” Zayn asks, looking to Niall because out of all of them, he’s most likely to give him an honest answer.

“Yep. Put on one of Hazza’s stupid hats, and you’ll be fine.” Niall assures him with a smile.

“Hey!” Harry voices, sounding slightly offended. Louis turns to him to smile, but is distracted by Harry’s flat hair again.

“Right, now that Niall and Zayn have had their hair done, time for me to teach you the Tomlinson way of styling, Harry.”

“And Zayn, you have to finish my hair, which might be more than a little ruined by Harry’s hat.” Liam says, pulling off the hat he’d forgotten he was wearing.

“Nah, it’s not too bad, we can fix that. You comin’ Nialler?” Zayn asks, leading the way to the bathroom.

“Right behind you, lads.” He says, holding out his hand to Louis. “You did good, Lou.”

“Thanks,” Louis says, grin wide, as he slaps his hand against Niall’s. “Now out of here so I can teach young Harold the ways of the Jedi.”

As usual, Niall finds this as hilarious as anything else Louis’ said all day and leaves the room in hysterics.

“That really does look awesome,” Harry admits once the laughter has been contained to the bathroom.

“Not as awesome as your hair’s gonna look once I’m done with it.”

Harry rolls his eyes. “Anyone would think you were a girl, Lou.”

“Maybe I am,” Louis replies, his voice an octave higher than usual. Harry just laughs and plonks down in the seat Zayn had only a few moments earlier occupied. His green eyes meet Louis’ blue ones and he gives him a look of defiance.

“Do your worst.”

**

The five of them stand in front of the long mirror in Louis’ bathroom. None of them speak. All they do is stare at themselves and at one another, small smiles playing on their lips as they take in the sight in front of them. The band One Direction, dressed as One Direction for Halloween. It was genius.

In a red polo shirt and cream trousers stands Louis as Niall, his new blonde hair stylishly swept to the side in that lazy way that Niall just mastered. He’s wearing those chunky shoes that Niall wears and that make Louis’ feet sweat, but he can’t complain because for once he’s comforted by the thought that he won’t have smelly feet at the end of the night.

Beside Louis is Zayn, as Harry, his hair long and flat and against his face, devoid of its usual style and curled as best it could be with a hair straightener, wearing a black blazer over a greying Rolling Stones tshirt that just screams Harry. Niall had warned that if Zayn’s curls weren’t done right he’d look like ‘one of those Jewish blokes with them curly sideburns’, but somehow Liam and Zayn had managed to get long enough curls that looked decent when compared to Harry’s and didn’t look stupid (Zayn’s main concern, honestly) and hidden what couldn’t be curled in one of Harry’s hats. Louis had convinced Zayn to put foundation on and even though Zayn denied his usage of the product, (“I don’t wear make up, Louis!” “You’re living a lie, Zayn and I won’t stand for it,”) he allowed Louis to put some on his cheeks to soften the harsh planes of his cheek bones and adopt some of that rounded cheekiness that was characteristically Harry.

Liam shifts from foot to foot as he stands beside Zayn, tugging at the tight white shirt he’s wearing. Liam is dressed as Zayn, and impressively so. From the high quiff, or as high as Liam’s short hair would allow, to the eyeliner-darkened eyes and the makeshift tattoo on the forearm Liam had bared upon pushing the sleeves of one of Zayn’s jackets up, he is almost a copy of Zayn all the way down to the shoes that he so often refers to as ‘moon boots’.

Harry stands tall next to Liam, hair slightly spiked at the back and swept into a fringe in perfect Louis fashion. He’s wearing a white shirt of Liam’s, despite Louis’ claims that it wasn’t authentic, (“Your shirts don’t fit me, Lou!” “But it’s cheating!” “Fight me!” “You’re wearing my pants or you’re out of the band.”) and Louis’ favourite pair of blue pants. It wasn’t hard to dress as Louis, all Harry had to do was wear tight pants and suspenders and shoes without socks – which was definitely the worst part. He was a little disappointed to be unable to don a trademark Louis striped shirt, but that’s what Louis got for buying such tight shirts.

Finally, ending the line up, is Niall, who looked more like Liam than even Liam did some times. Niall couldn’t have been more grateful with who Louis had assigned him, because out of all of them, Niall thought Liam dressed the most casual – aside from himself that was. Some skinny jeans and a blue checked button-up shirt, hair messily styled in a fashion similar to how he styles his own, Niall looks almost like a relative of Liam. His hair is the winner, though, the thing that brings his Liam costume together, and he still can’t believe how different he looks with it.  

Harry puffs his cheeks, breaking the trance-like silence they’d fallen into. Nervous laughter bubbles out of all of them, replaced so quickly by genuine laughs that it’s almost as if they’re still the same people they always are.

“We look amazing,” Niall declares.

“You do, I feel like a right twat.” Zayn  says with a frown, shaking his head slightly to get the curls to move to the side.

“Me too.” Liam admits, but he can’t stop smiling. “It’s kinda fun being someone else.”

Zayn shrugs, scratching at his scalp where it’s hidden by Harry’s knit hat.

“Right,” Louis says loudly, even though no one else is really talking or trying to. “Accent check.” He looks expectantly at Niall who rambles off a decent Liam impression, evoking a hearty laugh from Liam.

“I don’t sound like that!”

“Yeah you do.” Niall laughs, his Irish accent making a brief return.

“Whatever,” Liam retorts, with the thick Bradford accent he’d been secretly whispering to himself during the few hours they’d been preparing for this moment. Zayn rolls his eyes, but Louis grins.

“Excellent accent there, Liam.” Louis says in that elfish Irish accent he adopted a lot of the time. Truth be told, he probably had the easiest job of dressing up, but he had to dye his hair so… all was fair. “Harry?”

“I haven’t got one.” Zayn answers in Harry’s slow drawl and they all laugh because _damn_ , it’s close to perfect.

“Right, Harry,” Liam says, his Zayn accent a little better than before. “Give us your best Louis.”

Harry shakes his head. “I can’t.” And there’s not even a hint of attempt in his voice. Louis frowns.

“That’s alright, Haz, you’ll smash it once we’re out there.” Niall comforts Harry, nudging him with his shoulder.

“Should we get going then?” Liam asks, still with his accent in place.

“Yep,” Louis agrees, and leads them to the front door.

“Shouldn’t we have some kind of plan in place?” Zayn asks, lingering at the back of the group. “What if the fans figure it out or something?”

The thought stops Louis dead in his tracks because now that they’re only moments away from actually going through with his spontaneous Halloween plan, he realises that his plan isn’t really a plan at all. He’s got no idea what they’d do if fans caught up with them but that doesn’t seem to be the answer that the other four are looking for when they all turn his way.

“I – uh, haven’t really thought about it, to be honest.” Louis admits and he can see Liam’s shoulders fall.

“Louis,” Liam groans.

“What do you mean you’ve not got a plan?” Harry asks.

Niall jumps in, trying to keep the mood light and happy, “It won’t be that hard, we all look great and totally unrecognisable.”

“Not that unrecognisable,” Zayn says sullenly, “Everyone can still tell that it’s me even with this stupid hair…No offence Haz.”

Harry shrugs it away. “Louis, we need a plan.”

“Alright, how’s this for a plan? Stay in character, don’t call each other by our real names, stick with your accent and yes, Harry, that does mean you have to get one. Avoid groups of girls and if someone should, magically, realise who we actually are, run like hell and if we lose one along the way, so be it – we had a good run. Sound good?” Louis asks, but he doesn’t want an answer, instead turning on his heel and pulling open the front door. “Good! Now let’s go!”

Niall’s laughter breaks through the quiet night as he leaves the flat first, leading the way for Liam and a reluctant Harry. Zayn waits behind with Louis. “This isn’t going to work, mate.” He says, but he’s obeying the rules and sounds like Harry.

“Don’t worry about it, Zayn, we’ll be fine.” Louis drapes an arm around Zayn’s shoulder and they cross the threshold together, the cold air of night wrapping around them and providing a bizarre sort of comfort.

Out on the street, Harry and Liam are kicking rocks between them and Niall has already started wandering down the road. “This way lads, come on!” He calls and they all follow after him, Niall already owning Liam’s role.

They walk together along the centre of the road and as they turn out of Louis’ street and onto a main road, they spot a group of girls up ahead.

“Oh no.” Liam mutters.

“We’ll be fine, they won’t even look at us.” Louis reassures him.

Harry scoffs, “Oh right, so they’re just going to ignore a group of five guys roaming the streets at night?”

“Shut up,” Zayn hisses as the girls draw near. “Everyone just shut up.”

The girls are giggling about something as they come into earshot and all the boys avert their eyes. Well, almost all of them.

“Evening ladies!” Niall says to them happily, beaming largely when Liam gives him an incredulous look.

The group of girls pause for a moment.

“Who are you guys supposed to be?” One of them, probably the leader by the way she stands in front of the others.

“One Direction.” Niall says coolly. “I’m Liam.”

There’s a moment of tense silence where Louis can feel Harry tense beside him and the girls look all of them over. Zayn’s already taken a few steps back, ready to bolt back to Louis’ should the situation require it.

“Not bad…” The leader says, smiling. “Have a picture with us, then?” She asks.

“Go on,” Niall says, taking control of the situation since no one else seems to want to speak and they all huddle around the girls and her iphone, taking a few ridiculous self-shots before both going in opposite directions. Once Louis is sure the girls are out of range, he laughs loudly, breaking out of character.

“It worked!”

“No thanks to you,” Liam grumbles.

“Of course it worked, Lou, this idea is brilliant!” Niall exclaims, ignoring Liam and jumping on Louis in that way he does when he gets a little too excited.

“You don’t think they caught on?” Zayn asks.

“No one spoke but Niall, and he’s ace at Liam’s accent. We’re fine.” Harry supplies, and Louis doesn’t even have to look at him to know he’s smiling too. They’ve made it over their first hurdle and the night is looking up once more.

“Right,” Niall turns to the group and they all stop in the centre of the sidewalk. “Where to first?”

“Back home?” Zayn suggests, but judging by the smile on his face, he’s kidding.

“Let’s go trick-or-treating!” Harry shouts animatedly.

“Get with the program, Harold, that was the plan all along.” Louis drones, rolling his eyes sarcastically.

“You mean just going up to random houses and asking for candy and expecting them not to recognise us?” Liam asks wearily.

“Yes, Liam, have you never trick-or-treated before?” Louis is getting tired of standing around and talking – he just wants to go out there and have fun.

“Yeah, but not since before I became world-famous and besides, how are we supposed to stop them from recognising us? A lit up hallway is much harder to disguise yourself in than a dark street.”

“Wise words,” Harry murmurs jokingly and Zayn cracks a smile.

“Let’s just do it,” Zayn suggests, growing tired of the constant worrying everyone, including himself, is doing. “We’re doing this so we’re not boring anymore, right? So who cares if people think it’s us? Isn’t the point here to redeem ourselves? How are we supposed to do that if no one knows that it’s us?”

“Ah, Malik my man, always the voice of reason.” Louis sighs happily, leaning into Zayn’s side.

“Where’s Niall going?” Harry asks, drawing everyone’s attention away from the conversation and following Harry’s gaze up the street.

“Shit.”

“Nialler!” Liam calls.

“No, it’s Liam!” Zayn corrects, but they’re all chasing after Niall up the street.

“What do you think you’re playing at?”

Niall shrugs, “I got sick of talking about it and decided I’d just do it.”

“Because you knew we’d follow you.” Louis finishes, and grins. “You’re definitely smarter than I thought.”

“Ouch,” Zayn commentates, but it’s all in fun.

“Harry, what are you doing, get out of that person’s yard!” Liam scolds quietly, but it’s too late. Harry’s already knocked on the front door and is standing on the step as the door opens.

“Trick-or-Treat?” Harry asks, voice only slightly altered for the role of Louis Tomlinson.

“Who are you meant to be?” The elderly lady at the door asks skeptically, probably deciding whether or not this kid in suspenders was genuine or looking to rob her when her back was turned. Harry stammers.

“We’re One Direction!” Zayn shouts, pushing between Louis and Niall to jog up to Harry, followed by the others. “Sorry,” He says to Harry, who just smiles.

The woman looks them all up and down before grinning. “You’ve done very well, boys. Those are excellent costumes. My grand-daughter would love them.”

“Can we have some sweets then?” Niall asks, and it’s all the strength Liam has not to scold him for it.

“Absolutely.” She says with a warm smile, and just like that, the boys have successfully gained their first sweets of the night.

**

“We should have brought a bag,” Zayn muses aloud, lollypop in his mouth as they wander along the road.

“We don’t need one, we’ve got Niall.” Harry laughs, nudging the other boy with his elbow. Niall had been devouring everything they received all night and Harry was just waiting for the sugar rush to burn out and watch as Niall crashes. It’s going to be messy. Harry’s smile widens at the thought.

Louis groans, “I think I’m going to be sick. I’ve had way too many sweets.”

“That’s the point of Halloween,” Liam points out, face contorting as he chomps on a sour strap.

“My feet are killin’ me in these shoes Li, I don’t know how you wear them all day.” Niall complains. “Can we go now?”

“One more house,” Harry chimes in, not wanting to go home just yet. “Besides, we haven’t made our mark yet. We’ve got to make sure people know this was us and remember it.”

“Can’t we just twitcam when we get back to Lou’s?” Niall whines.

“We could, but I think we should do something else.”

They all look at him expectantly.

“Don’t keep us waiting, Haz, fill us in on your master plan!” Louis prompts, lips a light shade of blue from a lollypop he’d eaten earlier.

“Well, what if we went into town and did a few songs.”

“Are you crazy? Have you lost your mind?” Liam cries and Niall makes a noise that is a pathetic mix of laughter and pain.

“Liam’s right, Harry, we can’t do that. There’s no way we’d get out of there alive.” Zayn concurs.

“But we have to!” Harry says, “How else are people going to know that we spent the whole night trick-or-treating unless we tell them? Besides, what proof is there that we’ve actually done anything? We’ve hidden out here where no one knows us anyway. I think, if we really want to remind everyone that we’re not boring, we should go into town, talk to some people, take some photos so that there’s _proof_ that we actually did this.”

A few moments of silence passes between them before Niall nods, “I’m with Haz.”

“Hold on, you wanted to go home a minute ago.” Louis points a finger at Niall, “You can’t keep swapping sides!”

Niall laughs but shrugs, “I can’t help that I’m easily influenced.”

“We don’t even need to peer pressure you.” Zayn quips with a nudge and Louis turns to him, accusingly.

“You’ve jumped ship too, have you?”

Zayn nods. “Well we’re already out. And Harry’s right. There’s no point doing this if no one knows that we’ve done it.”

“Li?” Harry asks.

“I just don’t want to get hounded by fans.”

Another silences washes over them before Louis clicks his fingers and a mischievous grin spreads across his face.

“I’ve got it – I’ve got it lads.”

“Go on then.” Liam prompts and Louis just grins.

**

Surprisingly, Louis’ plan is brilliant. Or at least they all think so. It seems like one of those plans that couldn’t possibly go wrong, even though Liam’s mind has already thought of a few ways for that to happen. Despite this, however, they’re all making small talk with various groups of people, blending in as well as they can until Harry gets the phonecall.

They’re at a busy cross roads, with stores on all sides and people everywhere. Surprisingly, the streets are bustling on a Halloween night – who knew?

Niall and Zayn are chatting to some girls by the local pub and Liam knows that they’d rather go in for a pint, but they’re already too dedicated to this plan to abandon it now. Liam keeps an eye on Louis and Harry over the road, ready for the signal. They’ve all spent the past forty-five minutes taking photos and fooling about, ensuring their presence is well known to the people around them. They’re still in character as each other, of course, but not for much longer.

“You look really familiar,” A girl says to Zayn who stammers for a response and Liam tenses, fearing their cover’s blown.

“He gets that all the time,” Niall replies smoothly in what has very easily become a perfect Liam accent, “Birds are always saying he looks like that guy from One Direction – what’s his name again?”

Liam can’t help but laugh as he provides a “Zayn?” and gets nods of agreement from the girls.

“Yes, that’s definitely it.”

“You do look a bit like him.”

“He’s hot, isn’t he?”

“Oh God, is he!”

Zayn has to look away, biting his lip gently to avoid getting too embarrassed or laughing in their faces. His eyes find Harry’s across the street who has a phone to his cheek and is talking animatedly. Across the sea of bodies, Harry’s eyes meet Zayn’s and he nods.  

“Come on then boys, we’ve gotta go.” Zayn announces, nudging Niall away from one of the girls who whine in protest.

“Don’t worry,” Liam says, feeling bold, “We’ll be back in a few moments.”

“You better be.” One replies, winking at Niall before the two groups go their separate ways.

“I think you’re in there, mate.” Zayn teases, laughter bubbling from Liam.

“Shut up,” Niall laughs, rolling his eyes as they cross the street.

“All set then?” Liam asks upon meeting the others. Harry nods, exhaling sharply. “Nervous?”

“Don’t want to get killed.”

Liam smiles, “We won’t, this plan’s solid.” He gives a reassuring smile to Louis.

“Let’s do this poo.” Louis says and they all chuckle out a nervous laugh.

“Let’s do it.”

**

Niall’s sitting on the steps in front of a closed store, tinkering with a guitar until he glances over at Louis, who’s pretending to relax by a payphone, and gets the nod. He plays a few opening chords and they come over loudspeakers that Niall didn’t know existed. The people around them glance around, searching for the source of the noise.

As the crowd starts to migrate toward Niall, he plays the intro to their latest song and he can hear a squeal erupt from near the pub.

“Here goes nothing,” Liam mutters beside Niall, bringing the microphone they’d  been given moments earlier to his lipsl.

“ _Hey girl-_ “ Is all he can sing before squeals become screams and the crowd pushes a little closer. Most of the people don’t know what’s going on, but it won’t take long. The boys don’t stop though, don’t hesitate for a moment because they know what’s at risk if they do. So many people have come together to make what’s about to happen, happen and they can’t give up now.

All five of them had separated before the performance, but soon enough they all sought refuge on the stairs with Niall, microphones in hand as Liam sang his intro. It starts off as an acoustic session but before too many more lines are through, Niall spots Josh by the foot of the stairs with a makeshift drum set of overturned rubbish bins. His drum beat kicks off and accompanies Niall on guitar and the song is starting to sound a little more whole as Zayn jumps in.

That’s when things really start to intensify. There’s a surge in the crowd as the girls from earlier realise that ‘ _ohmyfuckinggodthatwaszayn_ ’ and push to get closer. Harry can’t help but laugh as Zayn stumbles over a word because of it.

“ _So tonight…_ ” Zayn sings, and Niall and Josh pause. There’s an eerie silence before Harry brings his microphone to his lips.

“ _Let’s go!_ ”

And it’s as if the whole thing had been planned for months – Niall and Josh crash into the music again, together, in time as if they’ve rehearsed it before (they haven’t), the crowd starts to sing along as if they ‘d been expecting a performance all night, the squeals intensify. In the middle of the crowd Liam spots Andy and a few of his dance buddies getting the crowd moving and upping the atmosphere and it doesn’t take long for the crowd to catch on.

They’re witnessing a One Direction concert. One without tickets, security, promotion. One that was spur of the moment. A pure One Direction impromptu show. And that’s when they start to go crazy. Ironically.

But they don’t push onto the boys, they don’t try and grasp them. They just dance with Andy and his friends or sing along. They’re just having fun. It’s just like a party in the street, which was what they’d all been hoping for.

Louis couldn’t be more grateful for how well everything’s turning out. He was genuinely concerned for their safety when they first arrived and he saw how many girls where out and about at that time of night. At one point, Louis swears he sees a flash of blue and red light but he ignores it since it’s almost time for his solo with Zayn and he’s pumped and excited but nervous too because he didn’t warm up properly before this performance and holy crap are those police officers? But he pushes those thoughts away, focusing instead on his few lines and getting the energy back up as they bring the song home.

Liam’s noticed the police weaving through the crowd too, but breathes a sigh of relief. He and Harry had decided that maybe backup was a good idea and had called them ahead of time so that when the song was finished, they’d get a relatively safe escort home. And thankfully they’d arrived on time.

Harry can’t believe how well the crowd’s responding, considering the mix of old and young people in there. But most seem to know the words and those who don’t jump about or nod their head and pretend to sing along anyway. It’s an incredible atmosphere.

As the song draws to an end, with Zayn dragging out the last note, Niall stands from his position on the top step and holds the guitar in the air. The crowd goes wild and it’s then that Niall notices how many new comers have arrived. There definitely wasn’t this many people in the area when they’d started.

“Hi!” Harry says into his microphone, silencing the crowd momentarily until he announces: “We’re One Direction!”

The adrenaline is pumping through all their veins and Liam can’t help himself. “Who wants another song?” He asks in his stage voice and the crowd gives him the reaction he’d been hoping for. They all look at him incredulously, but Louis smirks like he’s won some kind of battle.

“Up all Night?” Zayn suggests in a whisper. They all agree and Niall takes a few moments to try and remember how to play it. He’s nervous, sure, but it doesn’t take long for him to get the tune in his head again and he strums it out, Josh joining him with a solid drum beat a few moments later.

Partway through the performance, Louis can’t help but take a moment to soak up the atmosphere and really appreciate the dream he’s living right then and there. He eyes the crowd, takes in their smiles and their energy and he can’t help but echo it. And then he glances to his left and to his right, to the four boys that surround him. The four boys that supported him throughout this whole stupid plan and who were willing to take a chance on him and his idea, even if it meant serious repercussions from management tomorrow. That was true friendship.

They perform Up All Night to the growing crowd and by the time they’re finished, the police have made their way to the bottom of the stairs.

“That’s enough now, we don’t want things getting out of control.”

With a sad sigh, Louis agrees.

“Thank you, you’ve been a great audience!” Zayn announces into the microphone and the crowd erupts in applause and cheers as the police guide them all away from the stairs. On the way to the car, Zayn spots the girls from earlier and winks at them, just because he can.

**

“That was insane.” Liam breathes.

“I still can’t believe it happened.” Niall says.

They’re back at Louis’ flat, doing a twitcam. They’ve all ditched various aspects of their costumes but it’s still clear to see who was dressed as who.

“Think we should fill them in on how it all happened?” Zayn voices from his seat on the floor, head resting against Louis’ knee.

“We have to thank Harry for this one.” Louis says, taking charge as he often does. “Without this little curly haired angel, none of what just happened could have been possible.”

“Not true,” Harry shakes his head, “Without Louis’ idea to do something for Halloween, none of this would have happened.”

Louis nods, “True, very true.” Liam throws a pillow at Louis’ head. “But truthfully, tonight couldn’t have happened without some very special people.”

“Massive thanks to Andy Samuels and his crew for keeping the crowd entertained.” Liam interrupts, giving a thumbs-up to the laptop.

“And to big Joshy Devine for helpin’ me out with the music.” Niall says with a nod.

“Nick Grimshaw for hooking us up with microphones and connecting us to the sound system at short notice.” Zayn adds.

“Thanks Grimmy! Knew you were good for something!” Harry shouts from behind him on the couch and they all laugh.

“And one final, massive, massive thank you,” Louis starts, “Goes to these four boys around me. They weren’t too keen on my idea initially, but they put their trust in me and I think we had a good time.”

“Awwwww!” Liam coos, leaning over Harry and patting Louis’ leg.

“Did we have a good time, lads?” Niall asks over Liam and they all agree.  As usual, they get distracted by little mini conversations between themselves, each of them doing a few shout outs as they pop up on the screen.

“I’m so dead,” Zayn complains after a few minutes, stifling a yawn. 

“Me too,” Harry drones, “I think it’s time to wrap this cam up, yeah?”

“We always do such short twitcams when it’s all of us.” Liam points out.

“Which is so odd since we all like to talk so much.” Louis says, stifling a yawn of his own.

“Anyway, this is One Direction signing off,” Zayn mutters, reaching forward to play with the laptop. “I don’t know how to do it.” He admits with a laugh and Liam gets off the couch to help him.

“Thanks, we love you guys!” Harry says as Niall does a few more shout outs.

“Oh and that journalist that called us boring? This one’s for you!” Louis shouts lifting his hand to flip the camera off, but thankfully Liam turns the camera off.

They erupt into laughter and giggles.

“I’m having a shower,” Zayn announces, “These curls are driving me nuts.” Harry grins.

“Do we still have sweets?” Niall asks, holding his hand out to Zayn who helps him up off the floor, “I’m starving.”

“Try the kitchen, but I think you ate them all before.” Louis says with a laugh.

Harry jumps off the couch, pushing Louis to the side. “Let’s watch scary movies!”

Liam laughs and agrees, turning to Louis now that it’s only the two of them on the couch. “You did good, Lou.”

“You think?”

Liam smiles and Louis can tell he’s being genuine.

“Thanks.” Louis says quietly.

“Thank you, Louis.” Liam murmurs. “Without you, the world would have thought we were boring.”

“What bullshit.” Louis groans, shaking his head.

“Well, let’s just hope we don’t get called boring again anytime soon, because I’ve a feeling management is going to have a few words for us in the morning.”  Harry says, returning to the couch after putting a movie in the DVD player.

“Yup, no more nights out for us!” Niall calls from the kitchen.

“Should have gotten those girl’s numbers then.” Zayn mumbles, grabbing clothes from the messy pile on the floor, which seemed to have everyone’s clothes in it.

“I mean it though boys,” Louis says, “Thanks.”

Zayn and Niall exchange a glance across the room and before Louis can even blink, all four boys are diving on him on the couch making kissing noises and ruffling his hair and teasing him for being so emotional and Louis can’t even bring himself to care. He sighs happily as fingers dig into his side, tickling him ruthlessly. This is what friendship is, what friendship looks like.


End file.
